In the interest of sharing all the ups and downs of my garden--not just the successes but also the struggles--here is an update. The last of my snow pea harvest. The plants are dying because of the heat. I got about 4 lbs. total harvest I think. I'm going to pull the plants out in a few days. Here are a zucchini plant, cucumber plants and a basil plant. I'm not sure what's going on with the zucchini. Hopefully it survives. I've been giving it a little extra water the last few days. This weekend I'm going to harvest my garlic which look about done. I harvested a few that looked good. My lettuce has given me a good harvest but are starting to go to seed with our hot weather. I started some summer lettuce seeds indoors last week but those will not be ready any time soon. My winter squash are doing okay but maybe you can tell they're getting a little eaten. I have a bunch of volunteer potato plants from last year's potatoes. I'll pull them out in a week or ...

 Recently I read and listened to a book by a New York Times columnist named Ross Douthat called "Believe:  Why Everyone Should Be Religious." This is a book at a fairly high reading level and I struggled to pay attention initially, especially with the hard copy--sitting down with any book lately tends to have a soporific effect on me. I got an audio version and the latter half of the book was easier for me to listen to as I gardened. I enjoyed the book but I want to listen to it again. Douthat is an observant Catholic. He says that more and more of his readers are unhappy with their unbelief. He describes how he hears from many who wish they could believe and miss the community of Christianity done well. Helping those people understand that belief in God is not only intellectually viable but also the more rational choice is how he spends the first half of the book. He argues that it is the religious perspective "that grounds both intellectual rigor and moral idealism. An...

On Memorial Day this year, our family went to the Provo Cemetery, as we do almost every year. We spent some time at the Hansen Family plot which contains the grave of my 2nd great-grandparents, Peter and Mary Hansen. They both emigrated from Denmark with their spouses to Utah. My grandfather lost his first wife Ane to cholera on the plains outside of St. Joseph, Missouri, along with three of his little boys within a very short time--about one month. It's a sad story but it's also one of admirable resilience. He brought his one surviving son, Jorgen, to Utah. He married his second wife Maren (Anglicized to Mary) some 9 years later in Utah  She had been married before but lost her first husband at an unknown date. I wish I knew more about her but she left very few records, although I could do more research! Peter and Maren had 6 more children together. The youngest two were twins, Enoch and Ephraim. Ephraim is my great-grandfather and is buried in California. He is the father of ...

 Happy birthday to Lincoln! Here are some pictures of his high school years. Lincoln seemed to enjoy high school, especially his senior year. He had a good friend group and he did well in his classes and on the piano and in other areas of music. He did a lot of marching band on the snare drum and played piano in the jazz band. He also made All-State Orchestra on bassoon but quit not long after that because he said he didn't like his sub-par performance on the bassoon (or maybe it was the band). In any case, he was a pretty busy guy and had plenty of other musical activities. Somehow I didn't find any pictures of him doing his music but lots of others. At All-State Band (or maybe Orchestra?) Turning 15: I think Lincoln is in the back on the left. playing the snare. At a Hansen family reunion--one of my favorites. Lincoln's Eagle Project: Age 15: On Cascade Saddle: This is the world's most bizarre t-shirt and I don't know where it came from. Turning 18: Getting set ap...